Tag: Philandro Castile

This week, a 4 year old girl went on a car ride with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend.

If she’s like any of the typical 4 year olds I know, she would have been excited at the prospect of a car ride… busily chatting along with her mom about anything and everything, pointing out random things that would only draw the interest of a child around that age.

The car ride should have been just another event in the day of this 4 year old, but for this little girl it ended in tragedy so profound that an entire nation, if not the world has sat up and taken notice.

The little girl is of course the daughter of Diamond Reynolds, who watched her mother’s boyfriend, be murdered right in front of her.

I’m a mom, and for all purposes, this is a “mommy blog”; aimed at reaching out and empowering other mothers like myself. So I will not sit behind my keyboard and screen and pretend that I know anything about the turmoil that is currently brewing in America right now.

What I do know though, is that when the full impact of the situation finally hit Ms Reynolds, and she realised her boyfriend was dead, her composure broke and she howled in grief.

At that point in her live stream, something happened that sent a cold shiver down my spine. It broke my heart into a million tiny pieces. In that moment, that little girl, barely out of her toddler years, can be heard comforting her mama; “Its OK mommy, I’m here with you”.

And once more a few seconds later: “Its OK mommy, I’m here with you”.

Whatever the outcome of these senseless deaths, let the innocence and compassion of that little child spur us to be better and do better.

Let’s reach a level of humanity where we won’t need the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, not because they don’t, but because we’re so far past being labelled Black, White, Green.

Let us exercise tolerance and acceptance, for the sake of our children. For the state of the world they will grow up in.

Let us not forget that little girl, who will be forever changed by a series of events that should never have happened.